Between You and Me (29 page)

‘It was an accident, Laura. I don’t know what happened – we were just talking and then … he slipped and fell onto the knife.’ I wring my hands together, blood making my skin tacky. Wiping them on my skirt, I try to stop the sticky tackiness that makes them feel dirty; I am overcome with the desperate need to wash them. I give a soft laugh at the thought of needing to wash my hands while my husband is lying bleeding to death on my kitchen floor. Laura shoots me a look full of hatred as she hands Maria a clean tea towel from the kitchen worktop, instructing her to press down on the wound on Sal’s stomach to stop the bleeding. She pulls her mobile from her back pocket, pacing backwards and forwards across the kitchen floor, as I watch in numbed silence.

‘Ambulance,’ she barks into the phone, not taking her eyes off me. ‘And police. My friend has been stabbed.’ I slide down the kitchen cabinets and close my eyes. It was your own fault, Sal. I only did it because I love you. You were going to leave me, after all the promises we made of you and me together for ever; after all the lies you told me, Sal. After everything we’ve been through together you were just going to go. I had to stop you leaving somehow.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

FOUR MONTHS LATER …

SAL

Laura laughs as I hand her another bag to stuff somewhere in the boot of her ridiculously small car. We are packing to take Maggie, Lucy and Fred to Cornwall for the Christmas break and, despite the fact that it’s bloody freezing, we are all looking forward to spending some time on the beach, getting away from the horror of the past few months.

I try not to think too hard about that day, the day that Charlie completely snapped. I was unconscious before Laura and my mum broke into the house, my mum panicking because it was long past the hour and a half I had said I would be. She had driven over to find Laura on my doorstep about to force her way in after hearing Charlie screaming at me. Together they broke in, called an ambulance and managed to stem the bleeding, all while Charlie stood and watched. I lost a lot of blood, but the doctors said I was extremely lucky that Charlie didn’t manage to hit any vital organs.

It turns out that Charlie lost her job at Hunter, Crisp and Wilson that day after a scandal surrounding Lucian Pavlenco and his immigrant status, or lack of it. I knew nothing of what had been going on, and so for Charlie to come home drunk and find me packing my bags to leave was the last straw for her. She tried to tell Laura, my mum and the police that I fell onto the knife myself, that it was an accident, but the fact that only her fingerprints were found on it soon blew her story out of the water. That, and the fact that I had other injuries consistent with being beaten. Following on from that, she tried to tell the police it was self-defence, that I had attacked her after beating her for years, despite the only mark on her being a small bruise on her breastbone, where I had shoved her away from me into the kitchen sink. Laura soon put them straight and handed them the diary and photos we had put together, just a short while before all this happened. Charlie was arrested and is now on remand.

Laura has been a tower of strength – she looked after Maggie with my mum while I was in the hospital and I couldn’t have got through it all without her. We’re not in a relationship – I’m not ready for another relationship and I don’t know if I ever will be – but our friendship has deepened into something stronger, and we spend a lot of time together, something that seems to help Maggie. While Maggie didn’t witness anything, she knows that her mummy did something mean to her daddy, so Mummy has had to go away for a while. We’ll just leave it at that for now, until she’s older.

Mrs Prideaux has kept my job open for me. Obviously I couldn’t start in September, following the events of the last week in August, and I thought my chance was blown, but Mrs Prideaux,
Lana
, came to visit me in the hospital after she heard what had happened and said she would be prepared to hold my position until the January term.

‘You are an excellent teacher, Sal. We understand that these events are out of your control and don’t want to lose you. Are you still happy to take the job in January?’ She eyes me over the top of her glasses in that teacherly manner she has.

‘Of course! I was worried that this would have blown my chances.’ I struggle into a sitting position, wincing as the stitches in my wound pull. Lana pats my hand, and tells me, ‘Sal, you have no idea just how special you are.’

I smile at the memory. Lana is right. After years of being told I was useless, a moron, someone pathetic whose opinion was worth nothing, it’s taken these events to make me realise I am special – not the total loser my wife was so fond of telling me I am.

In the past, I was told so many times by so many people how lucky I was – my life, to others on the outside looking in, was pretty much perfect. I had a beautiful home, a clever, beautiful and successful wife, an adorable little girl and I didn’t even need to work – according to those on the outside I had it all. On the inside, however, a very different story was being played out and it just goes to show that not everything is always as it seems.

‘Come on, Sal, hurry up!’ Laura is waiting in the car, blowing on her freezing hands while she waits for the heater to warm up. With one last look at the house I lock the front door – I have finally been able to return after spending three months at my parents’ – the police said I could go back before then, but it all felt unsettling and slightly terrifying – and turn back towards the car. To Laura, and Maggie. To the future.

Chapter Forty

CHARLIE

On remand.
How did I go from being at the top of my game, about to become a partner in one of the most successful law firms in the South-East of Britain, with a beautiful family, a big house and a brand-new car, to being
on remand
?

Sal was just lying on the kitchen floor, slipping into unconsciousness when that stupid bitch Laura forced her way in, screaming and calling the police. I tried my hardest to defuse the situation – to tell them that Sal slipped and fell onto the knife himself – but my lawyer told me that was a stupid thing to do; that only my fingerprints were found on the knife. So I told them Sal had been beating me for years, that it was self-defence, but the lawyer told me it wouldn’t stand up in court; that there was evidence to the contrary. And now I’m stuck in here, awaiting trial for attempted murder. It wasn’t attempted murder – it was just a knee-jerk reaction to an unbelievable situation and I’m sure the jury will see it that way. There was no way I was going to let Sal leave me – I love him so much, and everything I ever did was
for him
. I lied for him, covered up illegal activity for him; everything I ever did was for him. I had to do the things I did to Sal; he drove me to it and, even when I really tried, he would always push me just that little bit too far. It’s all Sal’s fault that I am in this hideous place.

I tried to get someone from the criminal law department from Hunter, Crisp and Wilson to represent me – they are the best in the South-East, after all – but Mr Hunter, my old friend Stan, said they wouldn’t. A conflict of interest, apparently, as they would be involved in the charges regarding the illegal status of Lucian Pavlenco. I am still waiting to hear what charges, if any, will be brought against me for that. Pavlenco is apparently being detained in a detention centre, awaiting deportation back to Romania. His funds have been frozen and his wife, who believed herself to be Mrs Pavlenco, not Mrs Popescu, has left him and taken their children back to her wealthy family in Romania. As much as I hate being held here, it probably is the safest place I can be right now, at least until Pavlenco is gone. I don’t think he will take my mistake of leaving Radu’s emails on my laptop lying down, and I’m pretty certain that he has a taste for revenge.

Sal hasn’t been to visit me, nor has he responded to any of my letters. I have demanded to see Maggie, but I have had no response. No doubt his family have stepped in and are probably burning my letters before Sal even knows they have arrived. Sal would never ignore me deliberately so he mustn’t even know that I’ve written to him. It’s OK, though. Sal and I are destined to be together for ever, that’s what we always said, and once this whole mess has been sorted out we will be together again, somewhere far, far away from all of them, where they can’t interfere in our lives any more.

I have received one letter since I was brought here. Not from Sal, but from Alex. Just to let me know that Stefan decided to merge his company with Alex’s client – it all went swimmingly, apparently, and now Alex has been made a partner at his law firm. He thanked me for giving him the opportunity to succeed. I screamed with rage and tore the letter into a million tiny pieces when I read it – Alex is living my life, the life I should have had, until he destroyed it. There is a bitter taste in my mouth that I can’t get rid of; no matter what godawful prison food I eat, no matter how many times I brush my teeth.

This isn’t the end for Charlotte Trevetti – I will get out of here, at some point, and then I’ll have my chance to make sure everything is put right, that everything reverts to how it should be. That they all get what they deserve.